What I, Alone, Must Face
by LoonRider
Summary: The night before confronting Ganon, Link tries to convince himself he's not afraid and finds he has more company than he thinks.


**Hey guys have some Legend of Zelda. Because why not.**

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It wasn't nerves. It wasn't that I was afraid to face Ganon. It wasn't that going to the dark, infected castle at the centre of Hyrule felt so much more terrifying at night. I only wanted to be prepared, fully prepared, for the fight to come. So I cleared a small area and set a small fire and ate a small meal... and then I sat, staring into the flames, for probably longer than I should admit.

Courage. No one had said the word, not relating to me, but it was the core, the cornerstone of my being. It was why I'd listened to Rhoam before I even knew he had been my King. It was why I could hold on to calm even when a Lynel was charging at me with two swords easily as big as I was. It was why I kept hunting down shrines, knowing nothing about them or the trials they held. And it was why, even though my memories were still piecemeal and this world I found myself in still felt alien after so many months, I had to go to the castle.

_Be afraid. Do it anyway. _I wasn't sure how, but I knew my mother had said that to me, at least once.

The Master Sword lay in its sheath at my side. Laying my hand on its hilt, I let the familiarity wash over me as it had since I'd drawn it. Each time I held it, whether I needed it to cut down a tree after my axe haft had snapped in two or to lop off the spider-like leg of a Guardian before it could run me down after I'd been thrown from my horse, it had been like standing alongside an old friend. Even if standing near all my _other_ old friends felt strange and foreign, most times. And desperately sad other times. Seeing Impa old and frail, barely able to walk with any sort of speed though her spirit still sang, only made me more upset when my memories showed me her young and unbowed. Seeing Zora towering high over me and telling me they'd barely been waist-high to me when last we met...

I let the sword go. Sighed. The world had changed, and I only remembered pieces of its old form. But whatever I remembered, whatever I did... the world would change again tomorrow. And I wasn't afraid of Ganon, not any more than was healthy, but I _was_ afraid of that. If I defeated Ganon, _when_ I defeated it, Zelda would be free. To... what? To walk the earth again? Was she still alive? Or was she a spirit, her physical life sacrificed so her soul could hold Ganon prisoner while I slept?

I didn't want the thought, but it wouldn't get out. It locked itself around my heart with crushing force. Would defeating Ganon mean she would just... be gone? Her spirit free to move on with those of the other Champions?

Would destroying Ganon mean I would end up all alone?

_"Now that's a fatalist's way of thinking."_

I jumped up. The sword, my Sword, was clear of its sheath and ready in my hand before I even had time to think. I scanned for who had spoken but... there was no one. No one except me and Epona, the white-socked mare I had ridden here. Heart hammering, I relaxed, but only marginally. "Who..."

A hearty laugh erupted, sounding like it _should_ have near deafened me, but... it wasn't aloud. It was... I gasped.

It was _in my head_.

"Daruk?" I spoke aloud, feeling silly but somehow less silly than I would if I'd just thought the question. And if they reacted to my thoughts... I belatedly realized who the first voice had to have been. "Revali?"

_"We're here, Link." _That was Urbosa, a faint laugh in her voice as well. Relief hit me so hard I had to sit down: though I couldn't articulate, even to myself, what I was relieved over. I pushed the sword back into its scabbard, and Urbosa apparently took my silence as leave to keep talking. _"We've been here since you freed us."_

_"Zelda insisted we keep our silence, save our strength," _Mipha chimed in, her voice soft and musical as ever. Even though their spirit forms were not around me, I could see, in my mind, the way she pressed her hands together against her chin. _"But you seemed so upset... and Revali—"_

_"Couldn't resist taking a potshot at you," _the Rito finished, sounding flustered enough that I knew (well, suspected) his original words had been meant to comfort, or at least distract. It hurt even as I smiled, because I couldn't _not_ smile but neither could I stop the burning that had started in my eyes. Just hearing their voices, feeling the warmth of the power they'd given me...

"I miss you guys." I realized the truth of the words as I said them. Even with my memories incomplete, even though I'd spoken to each of them when I freed their Divine Beasts, even though I was constantly aware of their unique powers in me, at my call... I missed them. And maybe... maybe it was too painful to think my replies to them because it was just one more way I affirmed that they were no longer in this world as I was.

It was hard to distinguish, but I swear not all of the grief and loneliness I felt was actually coming from me. _"We miss you too, little guy," _said Daruk, his rumbling voice softer than it was in the few memories I had of him. It became more confident, more like what my faulty memory said he should be, with his next words, _"But we're with ya! Much as we can be, anyway."_

An airy sigh that I knew was Urbosa, and closing my eyes, I could almost feel the hand she would have laid on my shoulder if she'd been corporeal. _"And we'll be with you tomorrow. For you, and for the princess."_

_"You need only call us," _Mipha added, and in the stupid fantasy my mind was playing I felt both her hands touch my arm.

_"Yeah. We're not going anywhere." _Revali's voice was gruffer, and I knew he wouldn't have touched me. He'd be standing off to the side, his wings crossed. But he'd be looking at me. Only through one eye, as if he didn't care... but he did. In his own way.

_"Not til Ganon bites the dust!" _Daruk laughed again, and my mind couldn't provide the phantom sensation of his mighty hand thumping my back, but that was probably for the best. The memory I'd relived in Goron City had told me all I needed to know about how good that was for my ribs, lungs, and general well-being.

I opened my eyes, realizing a few seconds too late that I'd started crying. Feeling a brief flash of mortification, I scrubbed my hands over my face, but there was no need for it. They couldn't see me, and Epona... well, Epona didn't mind. She was munching on some apples that had dropped from a nearby tree, her ears turned towards me.

I looked south, toward Hyrule Castle. It would only take a few hours to get there, after sunrise. And I would face the foe that I, or at least my soul, had faced countless times before.

And I would not be alone.


End file.
